The History of thoenes®

When brothers August and Gustav Thoenes founded their company in 1878 and began trading in technical greases and gland packing for sealing boilers and pumps, they had no idea that 145 years later their name would become a brand and come to represent not only sealing solutions but also filtration solutions and lightweight construction applications.

Innovation has always been one of the company’s key priorities. Just as the founders demonstrated their innovative spirit in 1890 with a patent for the manufacture of asbestos sheets, today’s thoenes Dichtungstechnik GmbH sees itself as continuing this innovative tradition and offers its customers a wide range of bespoke solutions for seals, filtration and lightweight components.

Names are not mere smoke and mirrors, as Goethe once had his Faust suggest – today, the name thoenes is a brand that stands for innovation and is used and valued by almost 1,000 customers, leading research institutions in the region and business partners both locally and beyond national borders.

thoenes ® is ready for the future. Discover our innovative and time-honoured products for yourself on our website .

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Since 2007, with its premises in Klipphausen, thoenes Dichtungstechnik GmbH has not only enjoyed a more convenient location and been more easily accessible to customers and partners, but has also gained greater flexibility in designing modern technological processes.

With its founding site on Meißner Straße in Radebeul, the company remains closely linked to its name – tradition and innovation.

Among the historical milestones are not only the entrepreneurial skill of the founders and the generations that followed them during two world wars, nationalisation and incorporation into a combine, but above all the innovative drive of a new beginning following the successful reprivatisation in the early 1990s. Since then, thoenes Dichtungstechnik GmbH has once again become a family-run business and is now successfully managed by the second generation. Four years ago, son Thomas took over the management role from his father, Dr Rudolf Zocher, who had been building up the business since 1993 and continues to support the company.